Happy Horizons Children's Ranch is located at Bunga, Toledo, in the Province of Cebu, an hour away from Cebu City, the second largest city in the Philippines. It sits on 22 acres of land, 11 of which were donated to the General Council of the Assemblies of God by Marlene Barba Sanchez, a member of the Immanuel World Outreach Center Assembly of God in Cebu City. The remaining 11 acres are leased to us at no charge.
The Ranch's charter from the Department of Social Welfare and Development is Philippine wide, and includes abandoned and abused children from ages 3 through 12 for boys and 3 through 18 for girls. Most of the children at the Ranch would truly be "street children" if it wasn't for this ministry.
The five house parents, four additional staff members, and licensed social worker are kept very busy with the growing number of children who are living at the Ranch. The multipurpose building that has been completed houses the "Happy Church," our dorm for the children (30 beds), three of the house parents, a family room area, offices, storage area, dining room, and a small director's apartment. Thanks to the generosity of Allison Park Assembly of God in Pennsylvania, we also have our first duplex. This facility houses an additional 38 children and has two house parents' apartments.
With the renovation of "The Happy Bus," we have expanded our ministry to include a weekly feeding program/evangelism outreach to children in a poor neighborhood of Cebu City. Each week we feed between 150 and 200 children. We have sister facilities located in Cebu City proper that cares for 26 boys, ages 4 to 18. This outreach is currently being run by Harold Rauch, a German missionary. The name of these facilities is Nehemiah 1 & 2. Through this outreach we are also able to feed an additional 500 children each week. Our charter for these facilities exclude girls and infants.
Children and young people who live at Happy Horizons Ranch and at Nehemiah 1 & 2 are very excited by the changes that are occurring in their lives. Some of the girls at the Ranch recently visited with some of their friends who are living at a retention facility that is operated by the Department of Social Welfare and Development. After returning to the Ranch, the girls told their house parents how excited they were at being able to sing some Christians songs for the girls at the Department.
The common response from the girls' old friends was, "How different you look. You dress so differently now and have so much Joy!" In fact, because of the joy and happiness these girls showed, all of the remaining detainees want to now come to Happy Horizons -- even though they know we are of the "born again" church!
Each month Happy Horizons Ranch and our feeding programs receive funding from Asia's Little Ones. How excited we are to be part of the growing number of ministries to children in Asia Pacific. And how very grateful we are for people in the States who share our burden for the children in our area and give financially so that ministries such as Happy Horizons can exist.
Because of your continued generosity, many little ones in the Philippines have found hope for the future. Indeed their horizons are very happy!
The story of just one of the children...
Mario D. Sagarino, Jr. is 4 years old. Fondly called "Jr.", he came from Cordova, Cebu. He weighs 31 pounds and is the 5th in a family of 7 children.
Jr. became an orphan when his mother died of an illness on December 28, 1994, and his father committed suicide on December 31, 1994.
He and his siblings were all malnourished and neglected by their abusive parents. His father was especially abusive, beating and inflicting physical harm on both his wife and his children.
No one among the relatives of Jr. was capable of parenting him. Thus to ensure a better future for Jr., he was admitted to Happy Horizons Children's ranch last February.
Today he is happy and healthy!
Return to the Homepage